Last year Angola earned 48 billion US dollars from petroleum. Yet the country that was once Africa’s largest agricultural producer is reduced to importing food. Now the government and private investors want to develop the agricultural sector, in the hope that Angola could become a new Brazil. But will there still be room for small-scale farmers?

In response to the 2008 food crisis, Senegal developed an ambitious food self-sufficiency programme which aims to entirely cover national rice consumption needs with local rice by 2015, mainly through massive investments in existing and new rice perimeters in the Senegal River Valley (SRV). It has yet to be seen, however, how the projected rice production boom will reach urban markets, where the product is often unknown or misconstrued.

Soils around the world are degrading rapidly, reducing ecosystem diversity and some important functions, threatening food and other human securities, and increasing vulnerability to climate change. This is a vicious cycle created by and leading to further unsustainable land-use practices. Integrated (‘nexus’) soil, land, water and ecosystem management can help to turn it into a virtuous cycle.

Protecting land is vital to achieving food security and reducing poverty. This is the insight on which the global WOCAT network was built two decades ago. WOCAT’s early focus on soil and water conservation has expanded into a tried and tested facility for decision support in all aspects of sustainable land management for every kind of land manager. There is a special focus on providing sustainable benefits for the rural poor, both efficiently and cost-effectively.

At the High-Level Meeting on Food Security for All hosted in early January 2009 by the Spanish government in Madrid, stakeholders from more than 126 countries deliberated how to assure food security for all in developed and developing countries alike. The high level meeting carried forward the process launched by the June 2008 Rome food summit. Its purpose was to accelerate progress in meeting MDG 1 and address the effects of price fluctuations in vulnerable populations. The final report established the following outcomes:

The outcome of the Madrid High-Level Meeting on Food Security can be considered a victory for those who want to see the multilateral governance of the global food and agriculture system improved and strengthened, and conducted within the Right to Adequate Food framework.

Large land acquisitions can have a deep, lasting e? ect on livelihoods, food security and the future of agriculture, so there is a need for strategic thinking, vigorous public debate and government responsiveness to public concerns, especially in recipient countries

The recent upsurge in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in land raises the hope to bridge the gap of decades of underinvestment in developing countries’ agricultural sector, but it may also threaten host countries’ food security and increase the vulnerability of the rural population. Based on four country case studies conducted by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), this article illustrates distinct impacts of large-scale investments in agricultural land.

Smallholder communities in the Bolivian highlands have managed to conquer hunger: cheese production o? ers great hope to the people of the Peñas Valley. Cheese provides healthy nourishment for their children, generates additional income for families, and stimulates the local economy. Education is a decisive factor.

The years of war have led to a rapid decline in the nutritional status of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. To cover their protein requirements, the rural population in the Kivu region in the east of the country have turned to raising guinea pigs. For many families these rodents are nowadays not just a vital element of their food security, but also an essential source of income.

Since the 2008 food price crisis, foreign investors have been acquiring more and more land in poor countries for producing foodstuffs and biofuels for their own use. Such investments have the potential to promote rural development and food security worldwide. By the same token, however, there is the danger of countless small farmers losing their land, of food insecurity increasing in many places, and of social and ecological systems collapsing through pure "land grabbing".

As the world continues to experience a severe food crisis, with over one billion people going hungry, land grabbing – the purchase or lease of land by wealthy, food-insecure nations and private investors from mostly poor, developing nations in order to produce food crops for export – is gaining momentum. Some governments and international agencies believe that the in? ux of money and technology can turn land grabbing into a win–win situation for all involved. But is this really the case?